J.D. Drew made one All-Star Game in his career, and he made the most of it.
But it could have been even more memorable.
Amid a monster 2008 season with the Boston Red Sox, Drew was selected to go to the Midsummer Classic at the old Yankee Stadium. The right fielder began on the bench, but ultimately had the game-defining hit when he ripped a two-run homer off Edinson Volquez to tie the game in the seventh inning.
The game, which at the time still was used to determine home field in the World Series, dragged into extra innings. The nearly five-hour contest made it to the 15th, at which point American League manager Terry Francona was preparing to call a long-held bluff of Drew’s.
Saved only be the A.L. hitting a walk-off sacrifice fly in the 15th inning, Drew told the story on Audacy’s “Insider the Monster” podcast of how he nearly ended up on the mound.
“I was going to go pitch,” Drew recalled. “I had always messed around with Tito because I had a really good knuckleball that I used to throw. It was slightly different than (Tim) Wakefield’s, mine was just really hard. I used to warm up with Manny in the bullpen, and he was like ‘Man, that thing was nasty.’ He’d come out there and warm me up in right field, Manny was the bullpen catcher, and we’d throw and he was like ‘Man, you need to go out there and try.’ I’d always kidded Tito that when you need someone on the mound, let me go out there and give it a whirl. I think I can do this.
“So fast forward to this All-Star Game, and I’m looking at (Dave) Magadan or somebody in the dugout, and I’m like ‘Hey, what are we doing here?’ I said what are we going to do, I saw David Wright getting warmed up down there. And he was like, ‘You’re going in to pitch.’ I laughed and said ‘Yeah, I’ve always kidded Tito about pitching.’ He goes ‘No. You’re going to go pitch. You’re going in the game.’ So I was like ‘Oh man, we gotta win this game quick. We've got to score some runs right now because I don’t know about pitching in the All-Star Game.
“That was literally the inning we ended up getting the bases loaded and a sac fly, so we won the game. But I don’t know man, there’s some underlying regret that we won as quickly as we did in 15 (innings). I’m like man, maybe we could’ve extended it a little longer and seen what I had on the mound.
“I’m confident that if I had gotten in there – now I may not have gotten any outs – but I would’ve went in there and I would’ve thrown some knuckleballs up there. It would’ve been fun, that’s for sure.”
His brother, Tim, actually spent time in the big leagues as a pitcher, so maybe there is reason to believe Drew might have fared well enough for himself. Regardless, putting position players in the game would have been a good way to wrap that never-ending exhibition up.
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